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Catching Up on 5MR Action

December 5, 2022 / KDL / 0 Comments

Believe it or not, this is a color photograph of a Pigeon Guillemot

A trio of new birds for the 5MR life list

It’s been a crazy year for vagrants in Los Angeles County this year. Most of them are birds I’ve already seen in the county, so I don’t chase after them. Instead, I stay faithful to my 5MR circle. And while it gets harder and harder to add new birds to my 5MR life list each year, vagrants are always out there waiting to be found. Thus, while many birders slavishly continued their never-ending LA County big years, chasing birds they see every year, I was able to add 3 new species to my 5MR list.

The first of the fall trio is (you’ll have to trust me) pictured above. That black dot just below the center of the photograph is a Pigeon Guillemot lounging off Dockweiler Beach. This bird had probably been around for about a month when I saw it. But I’ve become increasingly uncertain about my bike’s ability to hold itself together, so I haven’t been taken long rides to the beach that often. In the wake of a close encounter with Tropical Storm Kay in Septemebr, I decided to check out Dockweiler Beach and see if anything unusual was around. Happily, the Pigeon Guillemot was offshore. It was closest when I first arrived. Once I put the binoculars down and got the camera out, it was further offshore. The result is the sorry documentation photo posted above. But, you know what? For all its shortcomings, that picture is actually one of my favorite shots from the whole year. There’s something about its monochromatic fuzziness that demands you give it a close, careful look.

The second of my trio was one I’d been hoping to find. In my 2021 5MR recap post, I identified Grasshopper Sparrow as my #1 target for my 5MR life list. In that post, I wrote that “these secretive sparrows are undoubtedly present in my 5MR, probably every year.” In early November, I proved myself right. And the one I found was just where I thought it would be – the Ballona flatlands. Much of the Ballona ecological reserve, which is full of great habitat, is fenced off. Since you can’t walk through it, hoping to flush a Grasshopper Sparrow, you’ve got to walk its edges. One such edge is along the very beginnings of the 90 “Freeway” where it crosses Culver Boulevard. I say “freeway” because, at 3 miles long, it can be driven from end to end quicker than you can read this blog post. Anyhoo, you can walk along the northwest edge of Area C of the Ballona Ecological Reserve right where the 90 freeway starts. I’ve done it a few times, getting looks at Loggerhead Shrike and White-tailed Kite, but never a Grasshopper Sparrow. Until I did. Amongst a group of White-crowned Sparrows, I noticed a skulkier sparrow with more brownish coloring. I pished, and a Grasshopper Sparrow popped up into view, first in a bush and then along the fence. According to eBird, it was only the third Grasshopper Sparrow found in West LA Basin. the first was 2012, then 2017. With mine in 2022, it may mean the next one won’t be found until 2027.

Baltimore Oriole

The third of the trio was found in one of my favorite parks to bird in my 5MR – Ladera Park. It’s a rectangular shaped collection of tall trees just south of Kenneth Hahn Park and the Inglewood Oil Field. Thanks to the tall trees, it’s a good spot for songbirds. In the past, it’s hosted Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Prothontary Warbler, Varied Thrush, and is maybe the best spot in my circle for wintering Plumbeous Vireo. I was not expecting any kind of oriole at Ladera Park when I visited in mid-November (orioles clear out by the end of September around here), much less a Baltimore Oriole. But I was definitely looking at an oriole high up in the sycamores. I first thought an odd, late Hooded Oriole. But that ID wasn’t adding up as I watched this bird deliberately move through the upper canopy. The top of the tail was orange, not black, and there was a patch of black on the birds lower neck that was not in the right place for Hooded. I next thought Bullock’s Oriole, but they usually show a lot more white on the lower belly and a stronger eyeline.

That left Baltimore Oriole. But I struggled to get good, unobstructed looks. The bird was surprisingly elusive despite its orange color and deliberate pace. As a result, I wasn’t sure until I got home and took a closer look at my photos. Some streaking on the head and a scaly upper back (together with the black growing in on the head) sealed the ID. Pretty cool, given that these birds are supposed to winter in Central and South America.

So it’s been a nice fall in the 5MR. We’ll see if December brings another addition to the list.

I almost struck out in Rochester

November 28, 2022 / KDL / 5 Comments

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Abraham Lincoln Park

Last Day Lifers in Rochester

We spent Thanksgiving week this year in Rochester, New York. It’s was a great trip – good weather and good family times. Birding-wise, there isn’t a lot to see in Rochester in late November, unless it’s an irruption year for boreal species like Snowy Owl and Common Redpoll. It either wasn’t one of those years, or it was too early. Still, birders had been reporting a Bohemian Waxwing and a trio of Pine Grosbeaks at a place called Webster Park, both of which would’ve been lifers. I dutifully headed there the first morning I was in town. As often often happens when you’re birding out of town, I wasn’t exactly sure where to go. The eBird hotspot was “Webster Park–campground area.” There was a quarter-mile long road that turned left into a campground area, so I basically walked around the area. I saw a few birds, but no Pine Grosbeaks or any waxwings. It wasn’t until the end of my stay that I ran into some local birders, who told me which loop trail with the crabapple trees the Pine Grosbeaks had been favoring.

I came back the next morning and, despite the additional presence of a half-dozen other birders, didn’t find any Pine Grosbeaks and couldn’t pick a Bohemian Waxwing out of a flock of two dozen Cedar Waxwings. Each day, the Pine Grosbeaks were reported either before I arrived or in the afternoon after I left. I stayed home on Thanksgiving, but was out again on Friday morning. The wind was gusty. There was occasional light drizzle. And I didn’t see any grosbeaks or waxwings. Saturday was the last day of our trip, and thus my last chance. I showed up at 8am, apparently 15 minutes after the Pine Grosbeaks had made a brief stop at the crabapple trees. After an hour of half of stalking the same quarter-mile of trail, my patience was finally rewarded. I heard the Pine Grosbeaks before I saw them. Conveniently, they then flew atop a pine tree for clear views. They’re big finches with some delicate plumage.

at long last

Pine Grosbeak

Another lifer target for the trip was Eastern Screech-Owl. There were scattered reports of these tiny creatures across town. But given their excellent camouflage, I either needed to get incredibly luck or some local intel. I ended up scoring the intel. Thanks to my multiple trips to Webster Park failing to find the Pine Grosbeaks, I crossed paths with local birders who gave me suggestions. One woman directed me to two specific trees where I might find an Eastern Screech-Owl. I checked them both one day, and struck out. But on the morning of our last day in Rochester, before I went to Webster Park for my 4th try at Pine Grosbeak, I found the little dude pictured below in a tree cavity in Abraham Lincoln Park. These little owls aren’t much bigger than your hand. And despite their name, they don’t screech.

Eastern Screech Owl

While I was failing to find lifers, I did manage to see some good birds that don’t call Los Angeles home. During my travels, I saw Long-tailed Ducks lounging and feeding just off shore on Lake Ontario. A lone Tundra Swan was calling in flight during a hike, and then stood on a frozen pond bellowing for companionship. A crow mob at Webster Park distracted us from the lack of Pine Grosbeaks and led me to a Barred Owl. Among the many woodpeckers I saw, I found a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker working a leafless tree at Mendon Ponds. And I finally got a (distant) photo of an American Black Duck.

Long-tailed Duck, Lake Ontario

You fully appreciate the species diversity of Los Angeles when you travel to somewhere like Rochester in late fall. For the month of November, birders have reported seeing 142 species in eBird in Monroe County, New York, compared to 299 species in Los Angeles County. Granted, LA County is much bigger than Monroe County. but consider this: for the entire state of New York, eBirders have only reported 263 species in November. I didn’t have a single checklist in Rochester with more than 18 species, whereas counts in the 20s and 30s are common when birding Los Angeles. In Rochester, if you’re walking parks or forest, it’s Black-capped Chickadees, American Robins, Northern Cardinals, Downy Woodpeckers, and Blue Jays on every list. After that, it’s a scattering of a few others species. I was surprised by the almost total absence of sparrows and other ground birds.

Tundra Swan

Black-capped Chickadee

Our last adventure during the trip was to a place called Wild Wings Birds of Prey Facility. It’s located at Mendon Ponds, and is a non-profit educational organization. They care for injured birds of prey that cannot be re-released into the wild. You can walk around the cages where they keep many of the birds, and get point blank views at all kinds of hawks and owls. Visiting on Thanksgiving weekend is a treat, because they’ve got many of the animals out of the cages with handlers. While we were there, we got to see Peregrine Falcon, Eastern Screech-Owl, Short-eared Owl, Gyrfalcon, Swainson’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk all on a handler’s arm. Inside the cages they had a Northern Saw-whet Owl, two Snowy Owls, Long-eared Owl, Great-Horned Owl, Bald Eagles, Barn Owls, Barred Owls, and a Pileated Woodpecker. I can’t describe how much of a treat it was to get arms-length views of all of these birds.

On top of that, another amazing thing about visiting the Wild Wings Nature Center is the chance to hand-feed some wild birds. They sell birdseed at the nature center, and over the years enough humans have walked the trails in the area with their hands full of birdseed that the Tufted Titmice and Black-capped Chickadees have grown accustomed to feeding out of your hand.

Always Bring Binoculars